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voltage at coil

  • Thread starter Thread starter willsbike
  • Start date Start date
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willsbike

Guest
So, bike only runs with choke. Can't throttle up. I think it's an air leak. Anyways, I'm getting spark to all 4 plugs, but was checking to see what my voltage was going into the coil, to see if adding a relay would be worth it. One coil I'm getting 10v to one wire, nothing to the other. All seems normal. The other coil, I'm getting 10v to BOTH wires. I unplugged the harness, and checked at the harness, and only getting power to one wire. So, the coil seems to be jumping power from one wire to the other. Is this a bad coil?
 
Only one of the two wires to each coil carries the voltage to the coil. The other wire is switched by the ignitor system, so it may be low or battery voltage depending on the state of the igniter. I haven't looked at the schematics for a GS550 but I believe that the orange/white wires are the supply lines to the coil and the other colored wires (typically white and black/yellow) are the switched wires. 10V may or may not be good depending on the state of your battery. What is your battery voltage with the ignition on?
 
Im getting over 12v at the battery. The thing I'm having trouble wrapping my head around, is I'm getting voltage at the orange and white wire like I should, but also at the white wire. If I disconnect either wire from the coil, then only the orange and white wire is hot, and the white shows 0 voltage.

Other coil has power to orange and white, and around a volt to the black and yellow wire
 
Might be easier to think of mechanical points, instead of electronics. With points, current flows through the coil and the points, building up a magnetic field. When the points open, the field collapses, which generates the spark out the secondary windings in the coil. If you measure the voltage on the white wire (that's the one that would be connected to the points) when the points are closed, you will see ZERO volts. However, if you measure the voltage with the points open, you will see the same voltage as the orange/white input wire.

Your ignitor is nothing but a box of transistors that act like points. If that circuit happens to be open (not connected to ground), you will see the same voltage on both coil wires. If that circuit happens to be closed, you will see voltage on one and nothing on the other.
 
Think of one wire (Orange/White) as being tied to the battery through the ignition switch. The other two alternate between open and ground. When the wire is open then the voltage at the O/W wire passes through the coil winding and shows up at the other end. In your case the white wire. When the other sided is grounded (through the igniter) then it will show as low. That's how the igniter is supposed to behave. Turn the engine over by hand 180 degrees and the the situation your seeing will change.

With that said, if your battery is showing over 12V and you're seeing 10V at the O/W wire then you do have too much loss and need to investigate where the loss is.
 
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